So I haven't posted in forever, but I've spent the last three weeks in a writing frenzy, and the only way to have a writing frenzy is to not go online ever. So I've been maintaining radio silence. That and I hate blogging. ;p But the frenzy is over, my first draft is done, and now I can do other things like post about my first author panel.

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This past Monday, I did an author panel as part of the Diversity in YA tour, along with Cindy Pon, Jo Whittemore, Malinda Lo, Guadalupe Garcia McCall (not pictured, where did she go?), and Bethany Hegedus. It was in Austin and it was awesome. I've never done an author panel, let alone a book signing; this was new territory for me. I only agreed to do it because I desperately wanted Cindy Pon's autograph. Which I totally got! In person she's really cool and outgoing and friendly. So yeah, pretty much my exact opposite. xD

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First we had an interview with Katie from Mundie Moms and Jen from I Read Banned Books where I shocked everyone into silence with totally inappropriate recollections, and then we had the panel and people actually came!

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Yes, I was taking pictures of the crowd while I was on the panel. Why not? They were taking pictures of me. ;p I took this one, on the sly, of Varian Johnson, who was moderating.

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I always manage to get a picture of someone looking irritated with me. xD But Varian was cool; he didn't stick around long after the panel because his wife was expecting. Probably as you read this she has finally delivered unto him a girl child.

So even though I was dreading the panel and having to speak in public, it wasn't that bad. When Varian said we had gone over an hour, I was shocked, because it went by so quickly. The only bad thing was that I had to sit next to Cindy who looked totally fabulous. I, of course, looked like a schlub. Curse you, Cindy!!!!!!!

After panel, we had the book signing. BookPeople had arranged a stack of my books on a table, and when the signing was over all the books were gone. Okay there were only like five books, but money is money, yo.

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So at my first book signing, this young lady happened to be my first autograph. Her name was Jennifer. Btw, there were so many Jennifers and Jessicas at this event, it was insane. Like that scene in GoodFellas when Karen gets introduced to Henry's mafia family and realizes they're all either named Peter or Paul and all married to women named Marie. Ha!

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Another of my fans was a guy named Steven. Sure he was Guadalupe's son, but I don't think she was forcing him to be nice to me. See how big he is? Could *you* force him to do anything?

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Cynthia Leitich Smith came by, specifically to tell me that my books totally freak her out, which was AWESOME.

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And Jenny Moss dropped by to say hi. She's always been really sweet to me online so it was great seeing that she's like that in person too. She came to dinner with us when everything was over.

I don't know the name of the restaraunt we went to, but I had the tortilla soup. And it was brown. Which was really bizarre. I should have taken a picture of that stuff. But it didn't matter because I totally hijacked Malinda's guacamole–that stuff was yummy in my tummy.

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Going in a circle from the bottom left is Jo, Jenny, me, Cindy, Jen Bigheart, Steven, Guadalupe, um…who is that?, Stephanie Pellegrin, Jessica, Malinda, Amy Rose, and Bethany.

Amy Rose drove Cindy, Malinda, and I back to our hotels and convinced me of something I already felt when I first got off the plane–that Austin is a great city.

So that was it. And it was a great experience. I'll have to spend the next three months in my hermit's cave recovering from all the socializing, but it was worth it.